Ivan Vazov

Born 1850 in Sopot in a religious and patriarchal family
. Pupil of Khristo Botev's father in Kalofer and later of
Joakim Gruev in Plovdiv. Emigrant in Romania, 1870-1877.
Published poems in Kravelov's paper Svoboda and in
Drumev's Periodichesko spisanie, met Petko Slaveikov,
Konstatin Velichkov and other emigrants. Was in Sopt during
the uprising of 1876. During the Russo-Turkish war of
1877-78, Vazov embarked upon half library, half bureaucratic
career that will continue for the next tenty years.

One of the most prolific Bulgarian writers and poets and
the first recognized classic of the new Bulgarian
literature. His master piece Pod igoto (Under the
Yoke) was crated in the 1880's, and is compared to Tolstoi's
Voina i mir. The Epopeia na zabravenite was
Vazov's master piece in poetry. Most of the poems in the
Epopeia are dedicated to individuals, but they are
always depicted against the background of the Bulgarian
nation.